Kukla's Korner Hockey

NBA players have agreed to cut their share of basketball-related income from 57% to 52.5%, but owners want a 50-50 split. There’s nothing to stop the NHL, whose players got 57% of revenue last season, for asking for a reduction and threatening a loss of paychecks.

“As a union you treat a strike, which is the counterpart of a lockout, as a last resort and you hope that management treats a lockout the same way,” Fehr said by phone Monday.

“The objective fact is that in football and basketball this year and hockey the last time, in fact, management did not treat it as a last resort. Will it be different this time? We’ll know soon enough. But I don’t know yet.”

There’s nothing to stop the NHL, whose players got 57% of revenue last season, for asking for a reduction and threatening a loss of paychecks.

Nothing except the threat of a much smaller fanbase making good on threats to stop following the sport entirely if they lock out again.

Nothing except the large teams throwing away a revenue stream that would take 14 years to recover from one lost year financially (assuming that following years can bring in the same revenue as before lockout #2)

Nothing except the threat of a much smaller fanbase making good on threats to stop following the sport entirely if they lock out again.

Nothing except the large teams throwing away a revenue stream that would take 14 years to recover from one lost year financially (assuming that following years can bring in the same revenue as before lockout #2)

Posted by J.J. from Kansas on 11/01/11 at 08:37 AM ET

Totally agree with your second point—what the league has to lose is all about their own in-fighting and factions forming among different owners.

With your first point though… no way. We are called fans—short for fanatics—because we will almost always come back. They would lose the moderate progress they’ve made with the “fringe fan” for sure. But the true fans will come back.